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The following year Schumann turned his attention to chamber music. He studied works by Haydn and Mozart, despite an ambivalent attitude to the former: "Today it is impossible to learn anything new from him. He is like a familiar friend of the house whom all greet with pleasure and with esteem, but who has ceased to arouse any particular interest".<ref>Schumann, p. 94</ref> He was stronger in his praise of Mozart: "Serenity, repose, grace, the characteristics of the antique works of art, are also those of Mozart's school. The Greeks gave to 'The Thunderer'{{refn|[[Zeus]], Greek god of thunder, known to the Romans as [[Jupiter (god)|Jupiter]], which is the nickname of Mozart's [[Symphony No. 41 (Mozart)|last symphony]].<ref>[https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199579037.001.0001/acref-9780199579037-e-3610 "Jupiter Symphony"], ''The Oxford Companion to Music'', Oxford University Press, 2011. Retrieved 20 May 2024 {{subscription}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240520171447/https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199579037.001.0001/acref-9780199579037-e-3610 |date=20 May 2024 }}</ref>|group=n}} a radiant expression, and radiantly does Mozart launch his lightnings".<ref>Schumann, pp. 94–95</ref> After his studies Schumann produced three string quartets, a [[Piano Quintet (Schumann)|Piano Quintet]] and a [[Piano Quartet (Schumann)|Piano Quartet]].<ref name=hall1126/>
1843 began with a setback to Schumann's career: he had a severe and debilitating mental crisis. This was not the first such attack, although it was the worst so far. Hall writes that he had been subject to similar attacks at intervals over a long period, and comments that the condition may have been congenital, affecting
[[File:Robert u Clara Schumann 1847.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Robert and Clara Schumann in 1847, lithograph with a personal dedication|alt=Signed engraving of middle-aged white couple seated and looking towards the camera. The man is clean-shaven; the woman's dark hair is tied in a bun]]
In 1844 Clara embarked on a concert tour of Russia; Schumann joined her. It was an artistic and financial success, and they were both immensely impressed by Saint Petersburg and Moscow,<ref name=g777>Daverio and Sams, p. 777</ref><ref>Daverio, p. 286</ref> but the tour was arduous and by the end Schumann was in a poor state both physically and mentally.<ref name=g777/> After he and Clara returned to Leipzig in late May he sold the ''Neue Zeitschrift'', and in December the family moved to Dresden.<ref name=g777/> Schumann had been passed over for the conductorship of the Leipzig Gewandhaus in succession to Mendelssohn, and he thought that Dresden, with a thriving opera house, might be the place where he could, as he now wished, become an operatic composer.<ref name=g777/> His health remained poor. His doctor in Dresden reported complaints "from insomnia, general weakness, auditory disturbances, tremors, and chills in the feet, to a whole range of phobias".<ref>Daverio, p. 299</ref>
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